decades behind bars — sam bankman—fried, one of crypto's biggest personalities, has been sentenced. we'll have the details. and you may be paying more for chocolate this easter. find out why later in the programme. hello and a warm welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. we begin in the us where the co—founder of the failed crypto exchange ftx, sam bankman—fried, has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers and investors of his now—bankru pt firm. the ruling cements the downfall of the former billionaire, who emerged as a high profile champion of crypto before his firm's dramatic collapse in 2022. the bbc�*s erin delmore has the latest from new york. a stunning fall for sam bankman—fried, a crypto exchange founder

and mogul in the industry who graced the cover of forbes magazine and appeared on stage with tony blair and bill clinton. american football player, tom brady, and supermodel, gisele bundchen, starred in his company's ads. he spoke in front of congress as a leader in the burgeoning crypto industry. he founded the cryptocurrency, exchange fdx, where customers traded their dollars and pounds for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. when the exchange collapsed in november 2022, he assured customers their money was safe. but it turns out his entire business was built on lies. a jury convicted him here in this courthouse in november, of fraud and conspiracy charges after five hours of deliberations — a nod to the strength of the government's case. nowjudge lewis kaplan has sentenced him to 25 years in prison, saying bankman—fried knew his actions were wrong and criminal, and that he made a bad bet that he would not get caught.

judge kaplan said the losses to ftx customers, investors and lenders totalled more than $11 billion. bankruptcy proceedings have been able to claw back much of the money but thejudge said that does not absolve bankman—fried. the prosecution was able to show multiple times where sam had the opportunity to do the right thing, to come clean, and he chose not to do so. during sentencing, thejudge harkened back to testimony from the prosecution's star witness, caroline ellison, the former girlfriend of sam bankman—fried and head of his crypto hedge fund, alameda research. she painted the man known by his initials, sbf, as a risk—taker hungry for influence. now facing decades behind bars, his risk—taking days are over. in new york, erin delmore, bbc news. a spokesperson for mr bankman—fried told the bbc that he will be

appealing the verdict. mr bankman—fried's parents said in a statement that they were "heartbroken" and will continue to fight for their son. justin d'anethan is a crypto expert from keyrock. he says the sentencing is welcome news for the industry. i think for the crypto community as whole, it feels like an appropriate sentence. i think many people would have rather have the prosecutors request of a0 years, just because of the number of projects, companies, and just retail investors that were impacted by his actions, but it is at least a lot better than what sbf�*s lawyer was asking, which was 6.5 years, which would have been ridiculous considering the seriousness of his crime. yes, and speaking of the retail investors, those that put a lot of money and faith into ftx and into bankman—fried himself, are they going to be getting their money back? there's something very important to understand. right now the claims for ftx assets that are locked in are about 80 or 90 cents on the dollar. so it sounds like most of the assets would be paid back to the investors, but a very important point

is that it will be the value of the assets at the time of bankruptcy and not what the assets are worth today. it does not seem like a big deal but considering bitcoin has been up 350% since then, or ethereum has been up 250% since then, there's a massive opportunity cost to just receiving the value of those assets at the time of bankruptcy, which was essentially the lowest point in the cycle. now, of course, on the flipside, if you were holding stablecoins or fiat dollars or just fiat assets, you are not too impacted, but for all the cryptocurrency holders, there's a massive gap between what you're getting and what you had at the time. so just a quick question on those cryptocurrency holders then. what happens to the balance of that money in between the value it is now to what it was when those people bought it? my understanding is they're not getting compensated for that opportunity cost. so if bitcoin was worth, let's say 18,000 or 16,000 at the time of bankruptcy, they'll get that equivalent but at that price point. and so of course it's better than nothing. but they missed out on a massive rally,

which they would have benefited from if they had just kept on holding their bitcoin and have been able to trade it. more regulation coming into the crypto space on the back of this? definitely. i think it's actually already happening. so you can see singapore may be making less strides to support the crypto space. hong kong is being a bit clearer in terms of what the licensing regime is and what companies need to do to comply. and then you can see us regulators going after a number of crypto businesses either to just ensure they're doing the right thing or because they actually think there was wrongdoing and the need to address that. earlier today we got some fresh economic data from japan. it showed that retail sales rose by 4.6% in february from a year earlier, beating analyst forecasts. on tuesday, japanese prime minister fumio kishida told a news conference that the country was only at the half—way mark of ending decades of deflation. it comes after the bank of japan raised interest rates last week for the first time in 17 years. neil newman ofjapanmacro.com helped us make sense of the data.

the retail sales broader number far ahead of the survey coming in at +4.6% year on year. the survey was saying +2.9%. so that's very encouraging. and also within the department store and supermarket sales up 7.2% year on year — again very strong. actually more than doubling last month's number. this suggests to me actually three things possibly that are happening here. 0ne, people are making more money on the stock market now, so they have a bit of extra cash in their pockets and they are going out and spending it. within the numbers so far, we can see that apparel textiles are quite strong. apparel textiles were quite strong. so that would suggest people are going out and buying clothes. certainly during february, there was a warm spells so people were probably going out and buying some spring and summer clothes. but also, i would not be at all surprised if luxury goods are actually popping up here because that's a sort of things you go and buy when you've got more money in your pockets suddenly. i think it's happening. the second thing which i think

is important is probably the disasters at the beginning of the year are now fading into memory. usually when there's a big natural disaster, like the sea of japan earthquake, you go through a period of austerity — injapan people do not go out, they don't do things. but it seems if this is largely domestic driven, then it is very positive that this awful event is starting to fade away. the third thing which is very key for this year, is the strong tourist numbers. inbound tourism is back up way above the 2019 level. you've got a different mix of tourists coming this time — the high spenders — and they are probably out there buying lots of interesting things from the department stores. if the momentum continues — and that's a big if because this year, it could go wrong — then this is actually still very positive. certainly for the first part of this year. and i think it supports what prime minister kishido is saying that we're seeing this recovery coming out of deflation. china's biggest private property developer, country garden, says it

will miss sunday's deadline for reporting its annual results. it also warned in a filing that its shares will likely be suspended from trading on the hong kong stock exchange. the firm, which was once hailed as a survivor of china's real estate crisis, defaulted on its overseas debt last october. china has lifted its tariffs on australian wine, as relations between the two countries improve. taxes of up to 218% were put on the import three years ago, after canberra called for an investigation into the origins of covid—19. beijing rolled back its restrictions on other australian goods, including barley and coal last year. many markets are closed today for good friday, including australia, hong kong, the us, uk and also here in singapore. but for those celebrating easter, it's looking like it might be a more expensive holiday this year, as the price of cocoa has soared. katie silver takes a look. the price of cocoa has reached all—time highs. earlier this week, futures for the yummy commodity hit

more than $10,000 a tonne for the first time ever. this is how it skyrocketed in the past year, almost tripling. the industry is facing the worst supply crunch in decades. the reason, in part, is climate change. most chocolate is made from cocoa grown in west africa, but there's been a humid heatwave blasting the crops and massively cutting yields. ivory coast and ghana are particularly impacted, which make up together about 60% of the world's cocoa production. that is coupled with disease. el nino rains, for example, sawa surge in a fungal infection known as black pod disease, which rots cocoa beans on the trees. and many of these trees are also failing to bear much fruit. they're particularly vulnerable to changes in the climate. the problem is these are systemic issues and the international cocoa 0rganisation forecasts it's only going to get worse. it's already pushing up the price of easter eggs in some markets. in the uk, for example, the consumer advocate group,

which, found some popular eggs, have risen in price by more than 50%. and the other possibility is just less chocolate for your money. that means less dark chocolate, which uses more cocoa and perhaps shrinkflation. so we might see more of those depressing, hollow easter eggs. the chinese smartphone—maker xiaomi has launched its first electric vehicle and, according to the company, has received 50,000 orders within the first 27 minutes. the company's chief executive leijun has said the speed ultra 7 is priced atjust under $30,000. it sees the technology giant taking on ev rivals including tesla and byd. you can get more on the story on the website and you can even see a picture of the car. that is it for this _ see a picture of the car. that is it for this addition - see a picture of the car. that is it for this addition of - see a picture of the car. that is it for this addition of the i is it for this addition of the programme. bye for now.

, edition. ——edition.

hey, i'm zoph with the catch up. tonight, the crypto king is sentenced. freddie flintoff returns and a sworn rescue in an ikea bag. a 19—year—old has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder following a stabbing in broad daylight on wednesday. this happened on a train in bromley, which was travelling to london. there's been a video circulating online as passengers filmed the alleged attack. the victim is now in hospital in a critical but stable condition. officers are appealing for witnesses to come forward. next sun bankman—fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in the us for stealing billions of dollars from customers. ——next sam bankman—fried has

been sentenced to 25 years in prison in the us for stealing billions of dollars from customers. from his cryptocurrency exchange ftx by. the former billionaire ceo was previously found guilty of fraud and conspiracy. prosecutors say he took almost £8 billion from customers. and some other stories now. a man has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter in connection with the death of gogglebox star george gilbey after the a0 year old died in a fall at work. george, who was a self—employed electrician, sadly died at the scene. and it's a great day for freddie flintoff fans as he's making his return to tv after his top gear accident with a second series of a bbc cricket documentary called field of dreams. time now to leave you with 10 seconds of a swan rescued from a supermarket roof in an ikea bag. the best thing about this is the swan was called steve. the team used a 13 metre ladder to rescue him and bring him back to safety. you're all caught up now. see you later.

hello, i'm mark edwards, welcome to sports day. here's what's coming up on the show. newcastle's sandro tonali charged by the english fa for alleged betting rules breaches afterjoining the club. we hearfrom manager nuno espirito santo is nottingham forest appeal their premier league points deduction. rybakina survives a second set meltdown to reach her second straight miami final. hello and thanks for joining us on sports day. we start with football and newcastle united midfielder sandro tonali has been charged with misconduct

by the english football association for alleged